ISSN 1729-3782

Vol. 5, No. 1, 18-31, 2006

AbstractMeteosat-8
is the first geostationary satellite that possesses channels at all bandwidths
that are of use for snow mapping. It therefore offers new possibilities for
multi-temporal snow mapping as well as for snow mapping at short time
intervals, which is for example required for numerical weather prediction
models. The spectral capabilities of Meteosat-8 allow an optimal spectral separation
of clouds and surface snow cover, but there always may be clouds with spectral
characteristics similar to those of snow. In this study, we propose a
classification technique that uses temporal information, in addition to
spectral information, to detect these clouds. This technique is based on the temporal
differences which often exist between subsequent values of a cloud-covered
pixel. The inclusion of temporal information in the classification process
improves the classification of images from a three-day test period in March
2004.